“Walking Makes the Road” and the Library

It can be easy for librarians to take space for granted. After all, there are many issues with which libraries must contend, but generally the physical building itself can be relied on. Books, to state the obvious, take up space and housing a heck of a lot of books requires a heck of a lot of space. The steady influx of new materials to a library may necessitate a process wherein older items wind up in storage awaiting a “friends of the library sale,” but even as the content on the shelves changes the shelves themselves remain. Librarians cannot necessarily rely on a stable budget or sufficient staffing, but at least the space itself is usually not threatened. Yet, one of the primary things that those involved in creating libraries in activist settings must wrestle with is that space can never be taken for granted.